In the world of web apps, the “offbeat” swings between the ‘interesting’ and the ‘almost useless’. It just boils down to the way we perceive it. For the time they exist, offbeat apps give us a few moments of fun and take us away from the humdrum.

I tried to have the same outlook while searching for a few good offbeat (but almost useless) Chrome extensions inside the Chrome Web Store. Searching for these hidden ‘gems’ is an exercise in fun, because you never know what you will come across. After all, didn’t they say that Twitter was useless as a communication tool?

So, tag alone and do your own digging. In the meantime, tell me what you think of these seven offbeat Chrome extensions.

You would be living in a digital la-la land if you don’t know who Jimmy Wales is. Well, he is the nice guy who co-founded Wikipedia. You owe it to him when the encyclopedia tells you everything that you throw at it. Some days you see a banner asking for a donation or making a personal appeal when you visit Wikipedia. With the Jimmy Wales Chrome extension, you can get his handsome mug shot beam down at you from every page you visit on Google Chrome.

Use: Serves as a gentle reminder of what we wouldn’t be able to do if Wikipedia sinks.

A good enough social and communication Chrome extension, but the only communicating you would be doing is showing your dislike. Look of Disapproval is a set of expressive emoticons mostly composed of Unicode characters. You can use them to show your disapproval on any website, social forum, or discussion board.

Groucho Marx or Tom Selleck, I don’t know which one you prefer. Me, I hate moustaches; but that doesn’t stop me from playing around with this extension on any image that’s over 300px X 150px. Adding moustaches to photos is childish play, but fun for a child.

Use: Minimal, because you will go crazy finding the right image to add a moustache too. Try it on your girlfriend’s photo when she is not around.

This offbeat Chrome extension swaps the gender anywhere you encounter it on the web. Male turns into female and vice-versa. For example: “he loved his mother very much” would read as “she loved her father very much”, “the patriarchy also hurts men” would read as “the matriarchy also hurts women”. It works on Google search results too. You can toggle between male and female gender swaps.

Use: Makes for fun reading, but does very little for the Battle of the Sexes as everything is equally swapped.

The Mayan’s aren’t here anymore, and they damn well made sure that come 2012 no one else will. As the description of this offbeat but fun Chrome extension puts it – A simple countdown to keep track of time when the world will end (December 21, 2012). Meant for fun, not to make you depressed.

Precisely! This extension does nothing. Perhaps, it was someone’s idea of a passing the time when he had nothing left to code. Do read the reviews. As someone puts it – There is pretty small number of things that working one hundred percent perfectly… this extension is one of them.

Use: 3500+ users…did they find something in the nothing?

These seven Chrome extensions serve to while away a lazy afternoon. It certainly helped me do exactly that. Did it do the same thing for you? Did I miss some great Chrome extensions that are useless, offbeat…but still interesting? Send us the mentions in the comments and tell us about your favorite ones.

Considering that today there are millions of Maya that live in Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, many of whom are oppressed and wrongfully told they don't exist anymore, this statement is rather ignorant and offensive.

Considering that today there are millions of Maya that live in Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, many of whom are oppressed and told they don't exist anymore, this statement is rather ignorant and offensive.

Saikat is a techno-adventurer in a writer's garb. When he is not scouring the net for tech news, you can catch him looking for life hacks and learning tidbits. You can find him on LinkedIn & Twitter watching over the world.